Mental Toughness Training and Tips | Advanced - General Q&A | Discussion Forum

Term, that does seem quite extreme for a reason to give up badminton to be fair. But then fair play for stopping if you are no longer enjoying it. I don't know if I have come across that I get really angry with myself as I don't, it's just a little thing on the back of my mind. As a person I don't seem to accept positive comments from people, often question why are they being so nice to me?! lol

But I do still enjoy my badminton and I certainly don't let it stop me from enjoying playing. I guess I just have a secret desire that maybe if I had taken up the game sooner or more competitively then I would be a better player than I am now. But if I am honest, like Paul said, no badminton player plays without thinking "could do this better or that", I think this what drives us on to do better or try and do better. And to be brutelly honest, I am always going to be handicaped compared to normal players as hearing the shuttle and what not helps their game.

I have been trying to be more positive on court and whilst I haven't improved a lot in terms of play, it has help a bit. I have been mainly using the mental thinking of playing each point in the same frame of mind regardless of the score and forget any mistakes from the last point and start afresh with the next point. I think this has helped me a bit, especially in singles (which I haven't played for a while).

I think you should try playing again Term, if I had given up badminton, I wouldn't visit this website any more, so maybe you haven't given up as much as think you have. Why not play again and take some of Paul's advice? I think you should try playing for a different club or against different people. Maybe it was that group of people that made you feel like this? Or maybe you played too often? Just my 2p, just don't like to think that your not playing any more, I play once a week (matches aside) and can't wait to play the next week, whilst part of me would like to play more, another part doesn't as this makes me enjoy it even more.

Cybershuttle, I'll give it my best shot, since you seem to be in a position I have been in for a while. I think it all started to turn around when a famous British coach called me (), and we talked about an hour. He gave me a few tips, and I started working. As in many sports, there's a part exact science, and a part talent (or whatever you want to call it). I mean, give 2 people 50h the same training, and they should reach the same game level. We all know this will not be true. For the science part, it is simple; start working, and working hard is about the only way to make progress.

His tips calmed me down, and until now, I haven't played a match full of nerves and tension. This started (I think) a bit of a chain reaction. Since then, I'm able to adjust my game throughout the match. I even started thinking LOL ! I make less mistakes. Not that all of a sudden I win every single match, but I don't go down in the way I did before. This elevated my confidence. Ever since I'm eager to play better. So I started running (I hate running, but I still do it), this elevated my physical level. Makes it rare that I miss a shuttle because I'm too late on the right spot. Last club night, I played against my usual (better) MD partner with a friend of mine (since we will play a tournament in december !). We knew we couldn't win, but we gave it our best shot. The opposition was too strong for us, but we did alright (til in the second game my friend sprained his ankle , hope he'll be okay for the tournament).

One of the first things I learned from this forum is the importance of the serve (high or low, backhand and forehand). I started training my serve in the club. Other members looked at me like I was mental. Ever since I have one of the best serves in the club. How do I know ? Better players really love to attack a lousy serve. They never attack mine.

So what's my point ? Stop, and get back to the basics. Maybe skip a few club nights (but no more than a few). I stopped playing club matches, and with another friend started playing singles, but only rallies. No matches, we just played rallies, focusing on one or a few aspects of the game. So actually this was a kind of self training ourselves. I think one trigger can start the ball running, thing is to find that trigger.

I wish you all the best, and hope you can turn things around. Because in the end you're the only one that has to do it. And now I'm off running my km's. ED

Just for info, and since this covers a bit the subject of this thread; here are my results of this first season part:
A while after Paul's phone call, he invited people via the forum at the beginning of the season they would mail him their goals (since one of his articles couvered this topic). I had little motivation at that time, thought about it for a long time, but never the less I took the chance. He's a coach, I was scared he would be thinking: "Is that it ?". I stated to win half of all my matches. Goals need to be realistic, I learned from Paul's article.

This is where Paul's tips brought me: I played 16 matches in the past 4 months, and won 8 of them. In the last 2 interclubs I won all 4 of my matches. In MD, I won one with my son (age 14), won 2 with a rising star in our club (age 11 !) and one with the guy I'll be playing a tournament shortly. In MX, 2 of the 4 I won with a senior lady in our club. Since I have deep respect for her, let's just say she was born 5 years after the end of the 2nd WW. So on our side of the court, the sum of our ages was over 100 (yes, nothing wrong with your eyes !). The summed ages at the other side of the court was about 30.

This is a bit of a (modest) succes story, but this didn't all change between a sunday and a monday. The process was slow, and Paul's tips simply started this process. I felt more and more relaxed playing competition. This made me focus more, making less mistakes, making me more confident, focussing even more, …
Thing is to start, and hold on. Get the possitive things out of what you do, and hang on to them. The physical part is easy, just start working. The mental part is difficult. If you're in a dip and cannot get out, you need this trigger to turn the tide. In my situation, my nerves blocked about all I did. So handling this first was the way to go. Where this all got me ? I met my goals, what more can I say.

All the best, ED